Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins will face local business owner Lauren Davis in the November general election.
Davis defeated Dallas ISD trustee Edwin Flores in the Republican primary by receiving 68% vote. The incumbent Jenkins defeated attorney Billy Clark in commanding fashion, receiving 87% of the vote.
Jenkins is considered the favorite to win in the heavily Democratic county. He is seeking a fourth term as Dallas County Judge. More than 123,000 people voted in the Democratic primary in this race, compared to around 76,000 in the Republican primary.
Jenkins has been known as the face of the county’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He imposed lockdown orders in 2020 and has been a strong opponent of Republican Governor Greg Abbott’s orders to ban mask and vaccine mandates, challenging both measures in court.
Jenkins told the Dallas Morning News that his priorities in a fourth term would be fully ending the fight against COVID-19 and funding mental health and other social services with federal money from the American Rescue Plan and CARES Act.
Jenkins’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been his challengers’ main attack point during the primary and general elections.
Davis is a local business owner and was the only non-attorney running in the race. She spoke out against Jenkins’ approach to the pandemic, saying she believes that “mandates are a violation of our individual rights” and that individuals should decide what’s best for them.
“I am running for County Judge to ensure all Dallas County citizens maintain their individual liberties and to achieve our fullest potential as a county,” Davis told The Dallas Express in a written statement. “We have experienced a gross overreach of government at all levels.
Davis has been a vigorous opponent of Jenkins’s mask mandates in Dallas County school districts.
“School districts, like Dallas ISD, took cover under the abuse of power we saw Clay Jenkins exercise during this pandemic,” Davis said.
In a press conference after results showed he would be the clear winner on March 1, Jenkins said that Dallas County Republicans have “chosen an anti-vaxxer… over an immunologist.” He attempted to convince Dallas County Republican voters to support him instead this fall.
“Those candidates just do not get elected in Dallas County in the Republican primary anymore,” Jenkins said. “I hope you’ll consider joining our big tent in the Democratic Party.”
Jenkins also addressed residency concerns that arose for Davis during her primary campaign.
Dallas County’s only Republican on the commissioners’ court, J.J. Koch, brought attention to Davis’ residency concerns and her voting record in a letter to Republican precinct chairs early in the primary. He endorsed Flores and stated that he believed Jenkins could easily challenge Davis’ eligibility in court and disqualify her.
Davis and her family lived in Puerto Rico for part of 2021. There is also no record of her voting in a Republican primary in Dallas County.
“I think it’s not at all inconceivable that there could be a lawsuit if the facts appear to buttress the point that Koch and the Republican Party leadership made about, you know, are you sure you’re eligible here?” Cal Jillson, a professor of political science at Southern Methodist University, told the Dallas Morning News.
Concerns about Davis’ residency arose after she made a statement to Republican party chairwoman Jennifer Stoddard-Hajdu when filing to run that she had spent time in Puerto Rico in 2020 and 2021.
Business records show that Davis and her husband moved one of their businesses to the U.S. territory in January 2021. She then provided Stoddard-Hajdu with a San Juan, Puerto Rico address as their residential address.
Davis has maintained that she only traveled to Puerto Rico but did not permanently move away from Dallas. Her lawyer has also repeatedly said that she is eligible to run.
To be eligible for county judge, one must be a county resident for at least six consecutive months and be registered to vote in the county, according to the Texas Association of Counties website.
“These are the perils of low turnout elections,” said Jillson. “People who looked at this race thought that it was Edwin Flores’, his nomination and that he would be prepared in a blue county to give Clay Jenkins a bit of a tussle.”
Instead, Jillson added that issues of Davis’ residency and voting record raised by other Republicans in the primary would come to the forefront.
A Republican has not won the Dallas County Judge seat since 2002 when Margaret Keliher received 50.51% of the vote. She served until 2006.